Sunday, March 01, 2009

Too Many Idiots, Too Little Time

It's been a long time since I sat down to write on this blog. There was just so much stupid stuff happening in the news -- both during the campaign and now after -- that I just didn't know where to begin.

But, there's no point having a blog if you are not going to write in it, so time to saddle up again.

I watched Rush Limbaugh at CPAC today (CPAC is the conservative political convention that's been going on for the last three days). Limbaugh was the last speaker, and he blathered on for about 90 minutes. Rush was clearly the star of the convention, which says volumes about CPAC!

The 90-minute Rush-a-thon drove my blood pressure up more than eating a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken would. I expected that. I expected to hear a lot of things that would drive me crazy -- not because of the ideological content, but because of the sheer illogical nature of his rantings. I was not disappointed.

Perhaps the thing that bothered me the most was when Rush criticized President Obama for delivering speeches from a teleprompter. Rush declared that he -- "El Rushbo" -- did not need a teleprompter because he spoke from his heart. Obama needs a teleprompter, Rush argued, because the president does not have the same passion for his views.

Talk about apples and oranges! I listened to Rush's radio show pretty much every day this week. Every point that Rush made in his presentation at CPAC he had already made on his show this week, sometimes multiple times. Basically, he had 15 hours of on-air practice before his speech at CPAC. Beyond that, Rush had notes at the podium to assist him. Finally, as my friend Claire noted, the President can't give speeches "off-the-cuff" because what he says often has consequences. Imagine if President Obama just "winged" his speech before Congress last Tuesday. Who do you think would be the first person to criticize him?

Rush.

If Rush Limbaugh is the intellectual driving force behind the contemporary conservative movement, Democrats will be in power for a long, long time.